In the fall 2011 semester, Iowa State was home to 3,424 international students from 103 countries. The two largest international student populations were those from the People’s Republic of China, with 1,849 students at Iowa State, and India, with 362. Now, a variety of representatives of Iowa’s three Regent universities and other business interests are traveling to India to build partnerships with universities there.

Several years ago, a similar series of events occurred with China. In 2006, Iowa State partnered with a Chinese university to offer students dual degrees in such fields as civil engineering, architecture, landscape architecture, and community and regional planning. The agreement also would “work on educational programs as well as explore further collaboration between businesses and industries.” In addition to such opportunities for Chinese students, one benefit of Iowa State is that universities in China are reaching their carrying capacity. With highly competitive spots and an enormous population, Chinese universities simply cannot meet demand.

The trip to India might be for the same reasons. With India, the university hopes to “increase its worldwide presence” through agreements that will allow Indian students to benefit from online education, “traditional foreign exchange programs, as well as dual-undergraduate and dual-graduate programs.” The current goal is to make Iowa State’s expertise in agriculture and engineering available to Indians.

In one sense, that goal is good. At this point in history, it goes without saying that spending some time in college studying abroad is beneficial. It exposes the students who take advantage of the opportunity to learn about new cultures, forces them to face challenges such as language and cultural barriers that they perhaps never would have faced otherwise, and it gets them out on their own in a way very different from going to college in a different state or across the country. And since the world is an increasingly cosmopolitan place — since the whole world, and not just the United States, is a melting pot — such an experience can provide an economic edge, too.

But from another angle, the goal with this trip to India seems suspect.

There is a clear difference between accommodating potential students from foreign countries such as China and India who through their own decision are interested in attending Iowa State, and recruiting them in an attempt at intellectual colonization.

There are any number of reasons the university could be doing the latter. With successive record enrollments (29,987 in fall 2011 and 31,040 in fall 2012), it’s no secret that in residence halls, dining centers, and classes, Iowa State is bursting at the seams. With a round of budget cuts from the State of Iowa that is only just reversing course, it should not come as a surprise that the university has an interest in educating students who, because of their out-of-state or international residency status, receive a higher tuition bill.

As a modern land-grant university, Iowa State does indeed have an obligation to maintain a global presence. But in making special arrangements with other countries to increase international student enrollment, the leaders of Iowa State must consider how such enrollment will take Iowa State to its carrying capacity and beyond, to the potential detriment of qualified Iowa residents and American citizens.